Technostress and the hierarchical levels of personality: a two-wave study with multiple data samples

Linking digital leadership and employee digital performance in SMEs in China: The chain-mediating role of high-involvement human resource management practice and employee dynamic capability

Background

In the digital era, the role of digital leadership is becoming increasingly prominent. However, the exploration of the alignment between digital leadership and high-involvement human resource management practices (HI-HRMPs) in influencing employee-based resources remains an overlooked research area among current scholars.

Objective

This study aims to analyze the influence of these elements on the digital performance of employees. Based on the Resource-Based View (RBV) and Dynamic Capability Theory (DCT), this research focuses on Chinese Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and employs purposive sampling to select four representative regions in China (Shanghai, Guangzhou, Guizhou, and Anhui). The survey targeted employees within SMEs and was conducted using questionnaire surveys. Structural equation modeling (AMOS) is utilized for analysis.

Results

The findings indicate that: (1) digital leadership cannot directly influence employee digital performance and employee dynamic capability but can directly influence HI-HRMP; (2) HI-HRMP mediate the influence of digital leadership on employee digital performance, but employee dynamic capability cannot mediate the influence of digital leadership on employee digital performance; (3) HI-HRMP and employee dynamic capability play a chain mediating role between digital leadership and employee digital performance.

Conclusion

In the digital market, digital leadership improves employee digital performance by boosting HI-HRMP and enhancing employee dynamic capabilities. The findings support studies on practical applications and link between digital leadership and employee digital performance. The uniqueness of this study lies in applying HI-HRMP and employee dynamic capabilities as chain mediating variables in the digital market. This approach extends the application of HRMPs and dynamic capability theory, providing theoretical guidance and decision support for the digital operations of SMEs.

Countering technostress in virtual work environments: The role of work-based learning and digital leadership in enhancing employee well-being

Virtual work has been highlighted as an important business trend nowadays. Technostress caused by information and communication technology threatens employee well-being in a virtual context. We integrate insights from the Job Demands-Resources theory to explore the impact of technostress on employee well-being and examine work-based learning and digital leadership capability as buffers of this negative impact via the attenuating effect of work exhaustion. We collected multi-wave survey data from 300 virtual employees to test the theoretical model. Results revealed a significant negative impact of technostress on employee well-being. However, work-based learning and digital leadership capability buffered employees' well-being from this negative effect by reducing their work exhaustion. Our findings extend our understanding of work design and shed light on how to cope with virtual work demands.

Wow, I cannot stop: a concentration on vocabulary learning via instagram and its effects on informal digital learning of english, technostress, and on-line engagement

The proliferation of social media in contemporary society presents a compelling impetus for scholars to explore the untapped capabilities of social networking platforms with the aim of enhancing educational practices. Despite the notable impact of social media on the acquisition of second or foreign languages, there is a scarcity of empirical research investigating the influence of Instagram feed-based activities on the development of vocabulary in language learning at under-intermediate level. In order to address this research gap, the present study aimed to investigate the impact of Instagram feed-based activities on the acquisition of vocabulary among individuals studying English as a foreign language (EFL). As a result, a cohort of 79 intermediate EFL learners was subjected to random assignment, leading to the formation of both experimental and control groups. The participants in the control group were provided with conventional online teaching using webinar platforms. The participants in the experimental group, on the other hand, were instructed via the use of webinar platforms and were required to participate in exercises that were based on Instagram feeds respectively. The results of the data analysis using one-way Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) revealed that the learners in the experimental group (EG) demonstrated superior performance compared to their counterparts in the control group (CG). The findings underscored the notable impact of using Instagram feed-based activities in promoting the acquisition of vocabulary knowledge. Additionally, it was shown that EFL learners had favorable views towards the use of Instagram Feed-based Tasks for the purpose of learning vocabulary. Due to treatment, EG achieved higher state in informal digital learning of English and on-line engagement. Moreover, they felt less technostress after treatment. The findings of this research have potential consequences for language learners, instructors, curriculum designers, and policy makers. Specifically, they suggest that incorporating Instagram feed-based activities into language learning and teaching may provide valuable chances for further practice.

Mindfulness and technostress in the workplace: a qualitative approach

Information Technology (IT) has been vastly characterized as a double-edged sword, offering significant benefits to individuals but at the same time bringing certain negative consequences, such as technostress. Technostress can severely affect individuals in the workplace, causing fatigue, loss of motivation, inability to concentrate, dissatisfaction at work and reduced productivity among others; thus significantly affecting individual well-being work as well as increasing costs for organisations. Recently, studies have shown the beneficial role of mindfulness in reducing technostress experiences of individuals; however, the evidence that exists until today is very limited, and mostly focused on evaluating the impact of mindfulness on technostress and its negative consequences. As the current research stands, at the moment it is relatively unknown how mindfulness affects the underlying mechanisms of technostress experiences of individuals. Through semi-structured interviews with 10 knowledge workers, the current study explores how mindfulness alleviates technostress within the workplace, by investigating the experiences of more mindful employees and learning from their practices. Findings offer a deeper insight into the relationship of mindfulness and technostress, revealing a toolkit of the underlying strategies that more mindful and IT mindful individuals deploy as well as their perceptions during technostress experiences at work thus shedding light on the path between mindfulness and technostress. The study contributes both to academia and practice, offering important implications to managers and practitioners that strive to improve employee well-being within organisations.

How to prevent technostress at the digital workplace: a Delphi study

Technostress is a rising issue in the changing world of digital work. Technostress can cause severe adverse outcomes for individuals and organizations. Thus, organizations face the moral, legal, and economic responsibility to prevent employees' excessive technostress. As technostress develops over time, it is crucial to prevent it throughout the process of its emergence instead of only reacting after adverse outcomes occur. Contextualizing the Theory of Preventive Stress management to technostress, we synthesize and advance existing knowledge on inhibiting technostress. We develop a set of 24 technostress prevention measures from technostress inhibitor literature, other technostress literature, and based on qualitative and quantitative contributions from a Delphi study. Based on expert feedback, we characterize each measure and, where possible, assess its relevance in addressing specific technostressors. Our paper contributes to research by transferring the Theory of Preventive Stress Management into the context of technostress and presenting specific measures to prevent technostress. This offers a complementary view to technostress inhibitors by expanding the theoretical grounding and adding a time perspective through the implementation of primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention measures. For practice, we offer a comprehensive and applicable overview of measures organizations can implement to prevent technostress.

Techno-distress and parental burnout: The impact of home facilitating conditions and the system quality

The incorporation of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in educational environments has generated diverse effects. The literature has established that the use of ICT can generate techno-distress in both teachers and students. However, the techno-distress and burnout caused in parents who help their children to use technological platforms have not been analyzed in depth. To contribute to closing this theoretical gap, we conducted a study with 131 parents who helped their children to use technological platforms, considering two antecedents of techno-distress and its effect on parental burnout. Our results demonstrate that both the home facilitating conditions and the system quality influence parental techno-distress. Additionally, it was possible to demonstrate that techno-distress has a significant effect on parental burnout. The use of technology in educational environments is increasing at all educational levels. Therefore, the present study provides relevant information that schools can use to reduce the impact of the negative effects generated by technology.

Teleworking in the Covid-19 Pandemic

Teleworkers who live and work in the same space are vulnerable to conflicts between personal life and work (LWC). The Covid-19 lockdowns increased the intensity and risk of LWC and changed telework conditions, confronting teleworkers with difficult personal situations and often ill-equipped telework environments. To develop a better understanding of the effects of different LWC dimensions (e.g., time, strain, behavior) on work exhaustion, job satisfaction, routine and innovative job performance and the role of the IT telework environment among teleworkers in the Covid-19 pandemic, a research model based on a sample of 249 teleworkers was developed and validated. The findings show that LWC has adverse effects on job outcomes and that the IT telework environment moderates these effects. The study contributes to the telework and role conflict literature by revealing the essential role of the IT telework environment and by differentiating between routine and innovative job performance among teleworkers.

Impact of Technostress on Continuance Intentions to Use Mobile Technology

With rapid development of emerging technologies, teachers have been required to integrate mobile technology into their practices to improve learning outcomes. However, teachers have been reluctant to integrate technology into teaching because of technostress. Many studies have investigated the reasons and consequences of technostress in different contexts more than education, specifically teachers in K-12. To shed light on the boundary condition of using new technology, this study investigated technostress as a boundary condition that influences perceived usefulness for continuance intentions of using portable technology. Therefore, the authors introduced a model to describe the relationship among technostress, perceived usefulness, and K-12 teacher attitudes toward and continuance intentions to using mobile technology in the Palestinian context. 367 teachers from different backgrounds participated in the quantitative study. SPSS and AMOS were used to find the path coefficients of the model. The findings revealed that technostress has non-significant direct effects on continuance intentions of using portable technology, where perceived usefulness plays a crucial role in continuance intentions. Technostress has negative effects on both perceived usefulness and teachers’ attitudes toward mobile technology. Participants in the study were from northern Palestine, which limited generalizing the findings on other technological tools. Longitudinal future studies are recommended to understand the impact of perceived usefulness and its relationship with technostress, which is important to deepening our understanding of continuance intentions in using mobile technology.

Technostress from Smartphone Use and Its Impact on University Students’ Sleep Quality and Academic Performance

Smartphone has been widely used by the younger generation. However, research exploring the technostress triggered by smartphone use lacks. Based upon the stressor-strain-outcome model, this study examined how smartphone use, especially compulsive use, life invasion, and information overload, cause university students’ technostress and, furthermore, how technostress impact their sleep quality and academic performance. Data were collected from 540 undergraduates studying at a Chinese public university and analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results revealed that compulsive smartphone use and information overload are both positively associated with technostress, which in turn have a positive effect on poor sleep quality and academic self-perception. Furthermore, compulsive smartphone use indirectly predicts sleep and academic problems through the mediating effect of technostress. The findings contribute to extend the existing technostress literature and provide valuable practical implications for smartphone-related designers, university teachers, and students.

Enforced remote working: The impact of digital platform-induced stress and remote working experience on technology exhaustion and subjective wellbeing

The COVID-19 pandemic forced most individuals to work from home. Simultaneously, there has been an uptake of digital platform use for personal purposes. The excessive use of technology for both work and personal activities may cause technostress. Despite the growing interest in technostress, there is a paucity of research on the effects of work and personal technology use in tandem, particularly during a crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a sample of 306 employees, this paper addresses this research gap. The findings highlight how both work and personal digital platforms induce technostress during the enforced remote work period, which in turn increases psychological strains such as technology exhaustion and decreases subjective wellbeing. Study results also show that employees with previous remote working experience could better negotiate technostress, whereas those with high resilience experience decreased wellbeing in the presence of technostress-induced technology exhaustion in the enforced remote work context.

Examining the moderating role of technostress and compatibility in EFL Learners' mobile learning adoption: A perspective from the theory of planned behaviour

Mobile English learning has multiple advantages and brings enormous benefits to EFL learners. However, not everyone adopts it, and the determinants of learners’ adoption intention have not yet been investigated fully. This study aimed to better understand learners’ adoption by employing the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) in conjunction with the influences of technostress and compatibility. Based on existing literature, a research model was proposed and verified with a sample of 409 undergraduates from a Chinese university. The results indicated that in the context of mobile English learning: (a) Individuals with higher adoption intention are more likely to engage in mobile English learning with higher frequency (b = 0.473, P < 0.001) and longer duration (b = 0.330, P < 0.001); (b) Individuals’ attitude toward mobile English learning (b = 0.171, P < 0.05), perceived behavioural control (b = 0.221, P < 0.001), subjective norms (b = 0.237, P < 0.05), and compatibility (b = 0.443, P < 0.001) are significantly positively associated with their adoption intention; (c) Compatibility is the strongest predictor of adoption intention (b = 0.443, P < 0.001) and negatively moderates the effect of subjective norms on adoption intention (b = –0.103, P < 0.005); (d) The influence of technostress on the adoption intention of mobile English learning is not significant (b = –0.041, P > 0.05). Practical implications related to mobile English learning were discussed.

M. Knowledge diffusion–application association during the COVID-19 pandemic: investigating the role of technology intervention

Purpose

Knowledge management during the pandemic has been a challenging task due to the sudden intervention of technology in the organisational environment and the unexpected shift to the work-from-home culture. This study aims to investigate the role of technology intervention in the relationship between knowledge diffusion and knowledge application.

Design/methodology/approach

A cross-sectional study was conducted and data were collected from 541 employees who were working from home during the pandemic in India.

Findings

This study found significant relationships between knowledge diffusion and technology intervention. This study also observed the mediating role of technology intervention in the relationship between knowledge diffusion and knowledge application.

Originality/value

Tis study stands with other pioneering studies that have explored the role of technology intervention in the knowledge diffusion–application relationship using the job demand-resource model.

A Dark Side of Telework: A Social Comparison-Based Study from the Perspective of Office Workers

Telework became a necessary work arrangement during the global COVID-19 pandemic. However, practical evidence even before the pandemic also suggests that telework can adversely affect teleworkers’ colleagues working in the office. Those regular office workers may experience negative emotions such as envy which, in turn, can impact work performance and turnover intention. In order to assess the adverse effects of telework on regular office workers, the study applies social comparison theory and suggests telework disparity as a new theoretical concept. From the perspective of regular office workers, perceived telework disparity is the extent to which they compare their office working situation with their colleagues’ teleworking situation and conclude that their teleworking colleagues are slightly better off than themselves. Based on social comparison theory, a model of how perceived disparity associated with telework causes negative emotions and adverse behaviors among regular office workers was developed. The data were collected in one organization with telework arrangements (N = 269). The results show that perceived telework disparity from the perspective of regular office workers increases their feelings of envy toward teleworkers and their job dissatisfaction, which is associated with higher turnover intentions and worse job performance. This study contributes to telework research by revealing a dark side of telework by conceptualizing telework disparity and its negative consequences for employees and organizations. For practice, the paper recommends making telework practices and policies as transparent as possible to realize the maximum benefits of telework.

I am. Therefore, I will? Predicting customers' willingness to co-create using five-factor theory

Purpose

Customers' participation in co-creation is a prerequisite for co-creation success. To identify customer co-creators, research has shown a recent interest in the role of personality traits as predictors of customers' engagement in co-creation. However, the empirical results regarding the direction and significance of these relationships have been inconclusive. This study builds on the five-factor theory (FFT) of personality to enhance one's understanding of the nomological network that determines the relationship between personality traits and customers' willingness to co-create (WCC).

Design/methodology/approach

Based on a large-scale empirical study on technology-based services (TBSs) in healthcare (n = 563), the authors empirically investigate the role of the five-factor model (FFM), innate innovativeness (INI) and enduring involvement (EI) in predicting customers' WCC using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

Findings

The authors’ empirical findings show that depending on the configurational setting of the personality traits tied to the FFM, INI and EI evolve as mediators in determining customers' WCC.

Originality/value

This study is the first to introduce the FFT of personality into co-creation research. The results of this paper shed light on the relationships between personality traits, characteristic adaptations and customers' WCC.

Trial-Period Technostress: A Conceptual Definition and Mixed-Methods Investigation

Application abstract:

A large number of electronic devices are rejected and returned to the seller in the first weeks of trial use, which costs organizations millions of dollars. We aimed to identify the causes behind those returns and find that stress during the trial period is a major contributing factor. Users are stressed as they need to learn how to use the electronic device, integrate it into their daily life, and take care of privacy issues. All that creates stress and makes users feel unhappy with using the electronic device so that they will send it back to the seller. In particular, we see in our results that individuals who are not innovative in using IT in general and have a low willingness to learn using the new electronic device tend to send back electronic devices in the first weeks of the trial period. When discussing those results with individuals who had sent back tablet devices, we see that stress in the trial period can even overwhelm positive thoughts. So, with our results, we conclude that stress in the trial period has many causes that are often responsible for returning electronic devices.

Overcoming the "Dark Side" of Technology-A Scoping Review on Preventing and Coping with Work-Related Technostress

In the course of the digitalisation of work, the phenomenon of technostress is increasingly being examined. While there is a plethora of research on its causes and consequences, a growing body of research on mitigating work-related technostress is emerging. In order to identify opportunities to overcome this "dark side" of technology, this scoping review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of research on how to prevent and cope with work-related technostress. The databases PubMed, MEDLINE, PsycInfo, PSYNDEX, and Web of Science were searched in the time period between 2008 and 2021. The studies were screened independently by two authors and selected based on predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Sixty-two studies were included and their methodological quality was assessed using standardised checklists. Resources were identified at the technical, organisational, social and personal level, including, e.g., leadership, organisational and technical support as well as self-efficacy and IT mindfulness. Problem- and emotion-focused coping strategies were, e.g., seeking support or distancing from IT. None of the included studies investigated prevention measures, emphasising a dearth of research that needs to be addressed in the future. Nevertheless, the identified resources and coping strategies provide starting points to address adverse work- and health-related consequences and reduce work-related technostress.

Online teaching during COVID-19 crisis: the role of technostress and emotional dissonance on online teaching exhaustion and teaching staff productivity

Purpose

Amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, higher education institutions (HEI) all over the world have transitioned to online teaching. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of technostress and negative emotional dissonance on online teaching exhaustion and teaching staff productivity.

Design/methodology/approach

Survey methodology was used to collect data from faculty members in Jordanian universities. A total of 217 responses were analyzed to test the research model.

Findings

The research findings reveal that technostress creators have various impact on online teaching exhaustion and teaching staff productivity. Negative emotional dissonance has positive impact on both online teaching exhaustion and teaching staff productivity. Further, online teaching exhaustion is negatively associated with teaching staff productivity.

Research limitations/implications

This research extends prior literature on technostress by examining the phenomenon in abnormal conditions (during a crisis). It further integrates technostress theory with emotional dissonance theory to better understand the impact of technostress creators on individual teaching staff productivity while catering for the interactional nature of teaching which is captured through emotional dissonance theory.

Practical implications

The research offers valuable insights for HEI and policymakers on how to support teaching staff and identifies strategies that should facilitate a smooth delivery of online education.

Originality/value

Unlike prior research that have examined technostress under normal operational conditions, this research examines the impact of technostress during a crisis. This study shows that technostress creators vary in their impact. Moreover, this study integrates technostress theory with emotional dissonance theory. While technostress theory captures the impact of technostress creators on individual teaching staff productivity, emotional dissonance theory captures the dynamic nature of the teaching process that involves interactions among teachers and students.

The Role of Mindfulness in Mitigating the Negative Consequences of Technostress

IT offers significant benefits both to individuals and organisations, such as during the Covid-19 pandemic where technology played a primary role in aiding remote working environments; however, IT use comes with consequences such as 'technostress' - stress arising from extended use of technology. Addressing the paucity of research related to this topic, in this study, we examine the role of mindfulness and IT mindfulness to both mitigate the impact of technostress and alleviate its negative consequences; revealing that mindfulness can reduce technostress and increase job satisfaction, while IT mindfulness can enhance user satisfaction and improve task performance. Moreover, our work sheds light on the under-researched relationship between mindfulness and IT mindfulness; showing that the latter has a stronger influence on IT related outcomes; revealing the valuable role of mindfulness and IT mindfulness in the workplace and offering important implications to theory and practice.

Techno-Eustress and Techno-Distress

The metaverse is emerging as a novel research frontier and a breakthrough technology across numerous markets and industries. Yet, due to its novelty, we know little about the users' behavioral responses toward such a disruptive innovation. Through the theoretical perspective of the extended model of occupational stress, this study empirically examines the effects of technostressors on techno-eustress and techno-distress, with the locus of control as a moderator in the context of the metaverse. Data were collected on 134 participants from multiple business schools in France who participated in the e-survey. The authors prefer to approach the metaverse from a user's (consumer's) perspective rather an employee's. Consequently, big tech companies can better understand how their innovative products or services are perceived by their customers, which leads to further enhancements and upgrades.

Eustress And Distress In The Context Of Telework

The COVID-19 pandemic brought about a surge in telework, with many organizations using telework to continue operations. Teleworkers are subject to stress due to the demands of working from home. Despite the common view of stress as being detrimental, stress can also be beneficial. In this paper, we investigate two forms of stress, eustress (beneficial stress), and distress (detrimental stress) using a theoretically-derived model that includes antecedents and outcomes of eustress and distress. We test our model using data from a survey of 525 American teleworkers. Results indicate that job resources (autonomy, managerial support, and technical support), and personal resources (resilience and self-efficacy) affect eustress, while job demands (work overload, social isolation, and resource inadequacies) affect distress. Eustress is positively associated with job and telework satisfaction and negatively associated with telework exhaustion. Distress has the opposite effects. Our findings hold implications for researchers and practitioners.

Perceived technostress while learning a new mobile technology: Do individual differences and the way technology is presented matter?

A growing body of research demonstrates that using technology can – despite the obvious benefits – be associated with stress. The aim of this study was to explore how perceived technostress while learning a new pro-healthy technology may be grounded in dispositional anxiety, attitudes towards ICT (Information and Communication Technologies), and the way technology is presented. Verifying the hypotheses, a study was conducted with the participation of N = 1,037 individuals, in which the 'technology presentation' was manipulated and selected individual differences were measured. As expected, it was found that presenting the new technology in the form of a popular science article was associated with the perception of this technology as more threatening and overloading compared to the situation in which the technology was presented in the form of a marketing leaflet with an unequivocally positive message. Moreover, it was shown that people characterized by higher dispositional anxiety perceived the new technology as more stressful in terms of examined categories of techno-stressors. Support was also found for the hypothesis that attitudes towards ICT corelate to selected dimensions of perceived technostress in regard to newly learned technology. However, the small extents of the effect obtained in the study indicated the need to continue searching for substantial factors that would predict technostress at the early stages of learning a new technology.

Addiction to Social Networking Sites and User Responses

Prior studies have primarily used "variable-centered" perspectives to identify factors underlying user responses to social networking site (SNS) addiction, their predictors and outcomes. This paper extends this perspective by taking a person-centered approach to examine (1) the prototypical subpopulations (profiles) of users' extent of SNS addiction and responses to it, (2) how affiliations with these profiles can explain user behaviors toward SNS use, and (3) how personality traits can predict affiliations with these profiles. To this end, we propose a typological theory of SNS addiction and user responses to it via two empirical, personcentered studies. Study 1 draws on survey data from 188 SNS users to develop a typology of users based on the extent of their SNS addiction and their responses to it. It further examines the relations between affiliation with these profiles and users' SNS discontinuance intention, as a typical behavioral response to SNS addiction. Study 2 uses survey data from 284 SNS users to validate the user typology developed in Study 1 and investigate its relations to users' Big Five personality traits. Our findings shed light on a typology of five prototypical profiles of SNS users-cautious, regular, consonant, dissonant, and hooked-who differ in their extent of SNS addiction and their cognitive, emotional, and behavioral responses to it. Our findings also demonstrate how Big Five personality traits can predict user affiliations with these prototypical profiles.

Technostress and Employee Performance Nexus During COVID-19: Training and Creative Self-Efficacy as Moderators

Technostress, a stressor, has implications for employee’s psychological states; however, flexibility like work from home can have positive outcomes, especially for instructors who have to teach and ensure social distance during COVID-19. The present study examined the relationship of technostress and employee performance while taking training and creative self-efficacy as boundary conditions. A sample of 222 university instructors, who worked from home or hybrid (home and workplace) during COVID-19 lockdown, was selected from Pakistan. The responses were recorded using a closed-ended questionnaire. Stepwise linear regression and PROCESS Macro by Hayes (2013) was used to analyze the data. It was revealed that technostress, instead of having adverse effects, had a positive effect on employee’s performance and both training and one’s creative self-efficacy significantly moderated the relationship. As the main finding, it was revealed that the employees continued to perform well despite the prevalence of technostress. The training and one’s creative self-efficacy were useful to control the technostress and maintain the performance of instructors during COVID-19. The university administrators and employees must take technology as a positive tool for performance. The training, along with creative self-efficacy, adds to the working capacity of employees and enhances their performance.

Privacy and surveillance attitudes during health crises: Acceptance of surveillance and privacy protection behaviours

The wide deployment of digital technologies for the management of the COVID-19 pandemic has triggered concerns about privacy and intrusion from government surveillance. This study investigates individual privacy and surveillance attitudes by developing a theoretical model to explain acceptance of government surveillance and privacy protection behaviours during health-crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Results from a US sample reveal that people are concerned about the collection and use of their personal information via mobile applications and the monitoring of their online activities by authorities. Findings reveal the important roles of political trust and belief that governments' need to be proactive in protecting peoples' welfare during a crisis that can increase acceptance of surveillance and thus assist in the management of the health crisis. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Impact of regulatory focus on security technostress and organizational outcomes: the moderating effect of security technostress inhibitors

Purpose

Organizations invest in information security (IS) technology to be more competitive; however, implementing IS measures creates environmental conditions, such as overload uncertainty, and complexity, which can cause employees technostress, eventually resulting in poor security performance. This study seeks to contribute to the intersection of research on regulatory focus (promotion and prevention) as a type of individual personality traits, technostress, and IS.

Design/methodology/approach

A survey questionnaire was developed, collecting 346 responses from various organizations, which were analyzed using the structural equation model approach with AMOS 22.0 to test the proposed hypotheses.

Findings

The results indicate support for both the direct and moderating effects of security technostress inhibitors. Moreover, a negative relationship exists between promotion-focused employees and facilitators of security technostress, which negatively affects strains (organizational commitment and compliance intention).

Practical implications

Organizations should develop various programs and establish a highly IS-aware environment to strengthen employees' behavior regarding IS. Furthermore, organizations should consider employees' focus types when engaging in efforts to minimize security technostress, as lowering technostress results in positive outcomes.

Originality/value

IS management at the organizational level is directly related to employees' compliance with security rather than being a technical issue. Using the transaction theory perspective, this study seeks to enhance current research on employees' behavior, particularly focusing on the effect of individuals' personality types on IS. Moreover, this study theorizes the role of security technostress inhibitors for understanding employees' IS behaviors.

Questioning Racial and Gender Bias in AI-based Recommendations: Do Espoused National Cultural Values Matter?

One realm of AI, recommender systems have attracted significant research attention due to concerns about its devastating effects to society's most vulnerable and marginalised communities. Both media press and academic literature provide compelling evidence that AI-based recommendations help to perpetuate and exacerbate racial and gender biases. Yet, there is limited knowledge about the extent to which individuals might question AI-based recommendations when perceived as biased. To address this gap in knowledge, we investigate the effects of espoused national cultural values on AI questionability, by examining how individuals might question AI-based recommendations due to perceived racial or gender bias. Data collected from 387 survey respondents in the United States indicate that individuals with espoused national cultural values associated to collectivism, masculinity and uncertainty avoidance are more likely to question biased AI-based recommendations. This study advances understanding of how cultural values affect AI questionability due to perceived bias and it contributes to current academic discourse about the need to hold AI accountable.

Innovations in human resources management of higher education institutions: technostress factors

The study on technostress is very significant in today's knowledge-based society. Technostress, which has developed due to the information-technology explosion over the past decade, plays an increasingly critical role in people’s lives. The study shows that the flood of information and the increased use of more technological tools could cause frustration, anxiety, and fear. The timeliness of the topic lies in the fact that if society does not pay attention to this new kind of public disease now, it would have a negative impact on people's health, quality of life, and efficiency at the corporate level. The study's theoretical background was analyzed by reviewing the international scientific literature available on the subject of technostress. The research aims to explore the relationship between factors belonging to the group of technostress creators concerning Hungarian higher educational institutions. In the study, the authors set up a research model to explore the relationship between technostress creators, which was examined using a quantitative questionnaire query. The study covered 237 employees working in higher education in Hungary. The results were analyzed in the SPSS 22 statistical program. During the evaluation, linear regression analysis was used to explore these relationships. The results demonstrated that the five components of technostress are techno-overload, techno-invasion, techno-complexity, techno-insecurity, and techno-uncertainty. These frequently interact with each other in higher education. The results of the study point to the fact that the five components of technostress embodied in higher education institutions are interrelated, which, when appearing in the lives of university lecturers, contributes to the increase in the level of technostress. The research results could be useful for all higher education institutions in terms of what factors they should place great emphasis on to reduce or prevent technostress.

Technostress and its influence on employee information security policy compliance

Purpose

This study focuses on unintended negative consequences of IT, called technostress. Given that employees are recognized as a major information security threat, it makes sense to investigate how technostress resulting from employees' constant interaction with IT influences the likelihood of security incidents. Although past research studied the concept of security-related technostress, the effect of IT use itself on employees’ extra-role activities such as security-related behaviors is unanswered. Thus, this paper aims to provide an understanding of the negative impact of technostress on employee information security policy (ISP) compliance.

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing on technostress literature, this research develops a research model that investigates the effect of technostress on employee intention to violate ISPs. It also extends the dimensionality of technostress construct by adding a new dimension called “techno-unreliability” that shows promising results. The authors use online survey data from a sample of 356 employees who have technology-based professions. We apply the structural equation modeling technique to evaluate the proposed research model.

Findings

Findings showed that IT use imposes high-level perceptions of a set of technostress creators, which makes users rationalize their ISP violations and engage in non-compliant behaviors. Further analysis of each dimension of technostress showed that techno-complexity, techno-invasion and techno-insecurity account for higher ISP non-compliant behaviors.

Originality/value

This study provides a new understanding of technostress to the context of information security and emphasizes on its negative impact on employee ISP compliance behaviors.

Personality Profiles that Put Users at Risk of Perceiving Technostress

Some information systems research has considered that individual personality traits influence whether users feel stressed by information and communication technologies. Personality research suggests, however, that personality traits do not act individually, but interact interdependently to constitute a personality profile that guides individual perceptions and behavior. The study relies on the differential exposure-reactivity model to investigate which personality profiles of the Big Five personality traits predispose users to perceive techno-stressors. Using a questionnaire, data was collected from 221 users working in different organizations. That data was analyzed using fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis. Based on the results, six different personality profiles that predispose to perceive high techno-stressors are identified. By investigating personality traits in terms of profiles, it is shown that a high and a low level of a personality trait can influence the perception of techno-stressors. The results will allow users and practitioners to identify individuals who are at risk of perceiving techno-stressors based on their personality profile. The post-survey analysis offers starting points for the prevention of perceived techno-stressors and the related negative consequences for specific personality profiles.

The moderating roles of technological self-efficacy and time management in the technostress and employee performance relationship through burnout

Purpose

The ongoing dispute as to whether using technology extensively at work may cause harm continues to gain momentum. Thus, the need for more research on the harmful effect of using technology at work and on the indirect effects on work performance is needed. The call for additional moderators in technostress research is still ongoing. The research contributes to the abovementioned gaps in the literature by analyzing a model with two moderators.

Design/methodology/approach

The sample population was chosen randomly from the lists provided by civil-servant unions and the chamber of commerce subsidiaries in the northwest region of Turkey. The employees received letters that explained the purpose of the study; the questionnaires sent to them. Out of 500 forms, 328 were returned. PLS-SEM technique was selected for hypothesis testing.

Findings

The results revealed support for all the hypotheses, and proposed moderators can be used to mitigate the harms of technostress and burnout. The findings have implications for both theory and practice.

Research limitations/implications

The limitation of this research is its sample characteristics. Due to the cross-sectional nature of the data set, it is difficult to claim causality. Therefore, readers should use caution when extending generalizations to a broader population. As for the theoretical implications, the interest in the challenges posed by various technologies in the workplace on human psychology and health over the long term is quite new. And there is still room for other mediating and moderating mechanism for the interplay between technostress and related outcomes.

Practical implications

One of the practical implications is that technology at work might have the potential to create stress, sometimes greater than its benefits. The effects that might be created by other sources of stress when combined with stress related to technology in the workplace should also be taken seriously. There are tools to reduce the harm caused by technostress that practitioners could make use of such as time-management interventions.

Originality/value

The dispute whether using technology extensively at work may cause harm rather than advantage continues to confuse people, and with time it is gaining momentum. Thus, there is necessity for more research on the harms of technology, and especially on the indirect effects on work performance. Second, the vast technostress literature seems to neglect to discern task performance from contextual one as the dependent variable. Lastly, the call for additional moderators in technostress research is still prevailing. The research contributes to the abovementioned gaps in the literature by analyzing a model with two moderators.

The Role of Information Technology Mindfulness in the Postadoption Stage of Using Personal Health Devices: Cross-Sectional Questionnaire Study in Mobile Health

Background

Although personal health devices (for example, smartwatches, fitness trackers and intelligent bracelets) offer great potential to monitor personal fitness and health parameters, many users discontinue using them after a few months. Thus, it is critical to study the postadoption behaviors of current users to enhance their engagement with personal health devices and use behaviors. However, there is little empirical research on the factors affecting users’ engagement in beneficial use behaviors. Mindfulness and identity are not new topics, but the applications of these concepts in the field of information systems are emerging themes. Information technology (IT) mindfulness has been conceptualized in previous studies; however, little is known about the antecedents and consequences of IT mindfulness in the mobile health (mHealth) context.

Objective

The main aim of this study is to explore both IT identity and IT mindfulness to develop a new ground for research in the domain of mHealth postadoption. Thus, we aim to explain why users should be fully mindful of their engagement with PHDs and what could be the consequences and implications.

Methods

This study proposes that IT mindfulness can play an important role in improving the use behaviors of users. Through a web-based survey with 450 current users of a personal health device, this paper tests the relationship between IT identity and IT mindfulness in the postadoption stage of using personal health devices.

Results

We found that IT identity significantly shapes IT mindfulness associated with PHDs. Moreover, the IT identity–IT mindfulness relationship is negatively moderated by individuals’ perceived health status (P=.003). Finally, the results of this study show that IT mindfulness can significantly predict automatic use behaviors (eg, continued intention to use), active use behaviors (eg, feature use and enhanced use behaviors), and commitment behaviors in using personal health devices (eg, positive word-of-mouth intention).

Conclusions

The findings of this study provide implications for both research and practice. This study can contribute to our current understanding of IT mindfulness by developing and empirically testing a research model that explains the determinants and outcomes of the IT mindfulness construct in the context of personal health devices. The results imply that IT mindfulness significantly helps individuals express their alertness, awareness, openness, and orientation in the present in their postadoption interactions with smart devices used for health care purposes. Finally, our findings may assist practitioners and IT developers in designing mindfulness-supporting PHDs. Owing to the impact of IT mindfulness on postadoption behaviors, its 4 dimensions could be used for developing PHD technologies. Moreover, PHD developers may need to direct their efforts toward increasing IT mindfulness by reinforcing IT identity to serve and retain a wide range of target users.

Do stressors stifle or facilitate employees' innovative use of enterprise systems: the moderating role of IT mindfulness

Purpose

Innovative use of enterprise systems (ES) by employees is essential for organisations to benefit from huge investments in such systems. Drawing on job demands-resources (JDR) theory, this study explores how stressors (i.e. challenge and hindrance stressors) influence employees' innovative use of ES, as well as considering the moderating effects of IT mindfulness.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from a longitudinal survey of 152 employees in a large financial service company in China. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to test the research model.

Findings

Results showed that challenge stressors exerted a positive effect and hindrance stressors had no significant effect on innovative use of ES. Furthermore, we found that IT mindfulness weakened the positive effect of challenge stressors and the negative effect of hindrance stressors on innovative use of ES.

Originality/value

This study is among the first to extend the research of innovative use of ES by considering two types of stressors based on the JDR theory. Besides, new insights are provided on how to promote employees' innovative use of ES in the post-acceptance stage according to the different levels of IT mindfulness of employees.